A Luscious Taste of EllaRegina

I don’t think of myself as much of a blogger, but my fingers have been overflowing with news and celebration of the erotic spirit in its many expressions these past weeks. Today I want to raise my Caipirinha cocktail to EllaRegina for her luscious story "Blind Tasting,” which is featured in the Erotica Readers and Writers Story Gallery this month (sorry, the story is no longer available at the site).

Fresh from our erotica writers’ blog progressive feast (which I will recap in a future post), I found it particularly appropriate that “Blind Tasting” also involves a group of sensualists with excellent imaginations. The Brazilian theme of the “Montridge Eight’s” party reminded me most pleasantly of Neve Black’s fish course served right on the beach in Ipanema, but, as anyone familiar with EllaRegina’s work knows, her sensibility takes the reader on a journey that is not quite of this world.

Another coincidence to make my blog posts seem more coherent than they really are is the undeniably Updikean theme of this story—a four-couple gourmet cooking club that gets a little more intimate in the sorts of sensual pleasures they decide to enjoy one February evening. I’m not sure this is something you could try at home, but with the abundance of fine food, drink and carnival artifacts at the White’s house (political reference intended?) you will certainly wish you could finagle an invitation to the hottest party in town!

While I pour myself another Caipirinha, I’ll take this moment to wax nostalgic about my first encounter with this distinctive erotica writer’s prose. EllaRegina and I appeared together in Best Women’s Erotica 2008, which is still selling like hotcakes on Amazon. This might very well be due solely to the excellence of a certain debut story called “The Lonely Onanista” (it also placed as a runner-up for the 2007 Rauxa Prize.) “Onanista” remains one of my favorite erotica stories ever. A combination of striking, unusual images and a timeless tale of erotic desire (aren’t we all lonely onanist(a)s waiting for the one who “gets it” to find his/her way into our chamber?), this story glows with passion for a lover, for the English language, for the boundless power of metaphor. I had the fortunate opportunity to interview EllaRegina about this story and her writing a while back and found the discussion most illuminating.

Here’s to EllaRegina and a bright February Friday for us all!